Huell tours Big Basin Redwoods State Park in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Established in 1902, it's California's oldest State Park and is celebrating its centennial.
Huell goes to California Citrus State Historic Park in Riverside, an open air museum which recaptures the days when "citrus was king" in California. The park preserves citrus history and its groves continue to produce high-quality fruit.
Huell Howser travels to Weaverville Joss House State Historic Park, home to a Taoist Temple of Worship and the oldest still-in-use Chinese Temple in California. The temple became part of the California State Park System in 1956.
Because it was the site of the northern-most gold strike, Shasta, six miles west of Redding, was a prosperous city and county seat from 1850 to 1890. Huell tours Shasta State Historic Park, including ruins of Gold Rush-era brick buildings.
Huell goes to Lassen Volcanic National Park to see the lava flows, jagged craters and steaming sulfur vents that make up some of Lassen's breathtaking landscape.
This state park near Morro Bay is named for the mountain of golden wildflowers that bloom there in the spring. Huell discovers the park's boundless natural beauty which also includes rugged cliffs, secluded beaches, streams and canyons.
Huell travels to Sutter's Fort State Historic Park in midtown Sacramento. The park marks the 1839 settlement that would become the state's capital and play a major role in California history when gold was discovered nearby in 1848.
San Diego became California's first Spanish outpost when a mission and fort were built in 1769. Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, the most visited State Park, recreates life in the Mexican and early American periods of 1821 to 1872.
Huell goes to see the statue and museum overlooking San Diego Bay at Cabrillo National Monument, which commemorates Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo's 1542 expedition, the first Europeans to set foot on what would become the west coast of the USA.
Huell travels three miles north of St. Helena to Bale Grist Mill State Historic Park, site of a water-powered grist mill built in 1846 that was the social center where Napa Valley settlers gathered to have grain ground into meal or flour.
Año Nuevo State Reserve has one of the world's largest breeding colonies for northern elephant seals. After a stop at Pigeon Point Lighthouse, Huell visits this sandy point 55 miles from San Francisco to see the seals during mating season.
In the Sierra Nevada, Huell goes to Donner Memorial State Park which commemorates pioneers who immigrated to California in the mid-1800s. It's named for the Donner Party that suffered the 1846-47 winter here and almost half the group died.
Huell drops by the California State Mining and Mineral Museum in Mariposa to see the state's official collection of more than 13,000 minerals, rocks, gems, historic artifacts, and fossils.
Huell tours Madrona Marsh Preserve with its newly opened Nature Center. This 43-acre vernal wetlands, a city park in the heart of Torrance, has been saved from future development and a history of oil drilling by dedicated local citizens.
Huell visits Temescal Gateway Park in Pacific Palisades. The canyon had been a meeting place for Native Americans. At the height of the Chautauqua Movement in 1922 one of the last independent camps was established and the town was founded.
Huell travels to the Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve in the East Bay, stops by the Underground Mining Museum, and also hikes to the remains of the mines.
Huell finds some eager Junior Rangers and open-space serenity in the heart of L.A. at Augustus F. Hawkins Nature Park, named to honor the man who represented South Central L.A. in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1963 to 1991.
Huell hikes Fern Canyon at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, a 14,000-acre sanctuary of old-growth coast redwoods, which offers hiking, nature study, wildlife viewing, beach combing, picnicking, a visitor center and a nature store.
Huell goes to Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove on Monterey Peninsula. Now a state park with nearby dunes and beach, this "refuge by the sea" began in 1913 as a camp for the YWCA with historic buildings designed by Julia Morgan.
Huell goes to the Civil War military post Fort Humboldt in Eureka. At this State Historic Park he learns about Captain Ulysses S. Grant's brief 1854 tenure at the fort, the local Native Americans, and rides a historic logging locomotive.
Huell goes to a park in the Oakland Hills named for Joaquin Miller, the Poet of the Sierra, who settled there in the late 1800s. With sweeping views of the Bay Area, it has one of the only urban second-growth redwood groves in existence.
Cuyamaca Rancho, a 25,000-acre State Park located east of San Diego, was devastated by wildfires in October 2003. Huell makes a somber visit to learn about plans to help these fragile wildlands recover quickly and to prevent future damage.
Huell explores Irvine Ranch Land Reserve, more than 50,000 acres of permanently-protected open space in the heart of Orange County offering a menu of recreational opportunities on land stretching 22 miles from the mountains to the sea.
Huell explores Alum Rock Park, a beautiful natural area in the Diablo Range foothills just seven miles east of downtown San Jose. Founded in 1872, it is the oldest city park in California.
China Camp State Park on San Francisco Bay is the last remaining example of the Chinese fishing villages that once dotted the shoreline. Huell walks through the village, learns about its history, and sails in a replica of a Chinese junk.
Huell uncovers a hidden treasure in the form of a small, little-known state park located on the rocky, windswept coast of Sonoma County. The entire park at Bufano Peace Statue is only 60 feet around and goes over 100 feet in the air.
Huell goes to Henry W. Coe State Park to attend the annual Tarantula Fest. Put on specifically to break down the negative myths and stereotypes so many people have about these hairy spiders, this festival has become very popular.
Huell tours the Victorian home in Martinez where naturalist John Muir lived from 1890 to his death in 1914. He meets the special folks who are responsible for preserving this important site.
Huell travels to the Yuba Goldfields near Marysville and learns about the mining operation along the Yuba River that was at one time the most profitable operation in the world.
Huell and ecologist Jim Cornett explore Joshua Tree National Park for a look at the amazing namesake trees found in only four states and no where else in the world. This springtime visit shows why the park is such a national treasure.
Huell learns about the rare plants and animals plus geologic and human history of Carrizo Plain National Monument in eastern San Luis Obispo County. Its 250,000-acre native grassland is what much of central California was like in the past.
Huell explores 3,670-acre Bidwell Park in Chico, one of the nation's largest municipal parks. 2005 is the centennial of the original gift of pristine countryside by the Bidwell family, Chico's founders, to the city for all people to enjoy.
Columbia is a wonderfully preserved Gold Rush-era town and its central district has been a State Historic Park since 1945. Huell attends the annual Columbia Diggins 1852 celebration, a reenactment of the early days when it was a tent town.
Huell's off to Yosemite National Park where he walks the newly rehabilitated trails to the base of Yosemite Falls, the highest waterfall in North America.
Huell tours Leland Stanford Mansion State Historic Park, once the home of one of the state's most important and powerful families. Today this historic mansion has been beautifully restored and is open to everyone to discover its treasures.
Before the Tuolumne River in Yosemite National Park was dammed in the 1920s, John Muir said Hetch Hetchy Valley was as beautiful as Yosemite Valley. Huell travels to this spectacular place to learn about its past and reconsider its future.
Huell goes to Santa Catalina Island to tour the William Wrigley Jr. Memorial and Botanical Garden which features a stunning tower monument and gardens with hundreds of species endemic to all California islands and from around the world.
Huell visits Hearst San Simeon State Park, one of California's oldest state parks, to learn about a historic conservation plan that will transfer about 13 miles of coastline and over 800 acres from the private Hearst Ranch to the park.
Huell spends a day in Carpinteria, 12 miles southeast of Santa Barbara, at two wonderful parks. Salt Marsh Nature Park is a success story of preserving natural resources. Known for recreation, the State Beach has a history rich in tar.
Huell tours the Audubon Center at Ernest E. Debs Regional Park, an oasis of native habitats 5 minutes from downtown LA. Environmental education programs engage children in the natural world to give them a personal stake in its protection.
Huell tours Ahjumawi Lava Springs State Park. "Where the waters come together" is a translation of the word Ahjumawi, which is also the self-describing word used by the band of Pit River Native Americans who inhabit the area.
Huell attends the grand reopening of the Kelso Depot and learns about its rich history. Abandoned by Union Pacific Railroad in 1985, this beautifully restored 1924 building is now the main Visitor Center for Mojave National Preserve.
Huell goes below Sacramento to explore the hidden historic sidewalks, doorways and building relics that were part of the original downtown area before the entire city was raised one level due to frequent floods from the Sacramento River.
Huell visits the Cayuga Playground in downtown San Francisco. The playground was once a beaten down, overgrown, weed-choked space and has been transformed by Demi Braceros into a beautiful park with flowers and paths decorated with twisted twig fences, wood carvings and inspirational messages.
Huell visits California State Railroad Museum, in Old Sacramento State Historic Park, one of the finest and most visited railroad museums. He explores restored rail cars, locomotives, and exhibits that illustrate California's rail history.
Huell tours Camarillo Ranch, named for "the last Spanish Don", Adolfo Camarillo, who inherited the 10,000-acre ranch in 1880 when he was 16. Now it's a small city park with the restored Victorian Queen Anne style house, barn, and stables.
Huell visits the south fork of the Yuba River. The area includes the longest single-span covered bridge in the world, four miles of the steep rugged canyon of the South Yuba River, and the Independence Trail - a wheelchair accessible trail. See water pouring over massive granite ledges, and historic toll crossings and bridges that tell a story of day-to-day life during the Gold Rush era.
Huell goes to Whiskeytown National Recreation Area to hear all about this new and improved park and to explore the freshly cut trail to a recently-discovered enormous 400-foot waterfall that was hidden on private property until 2006.
